


stolen affections (thwarted by time)

by a_wonderingmind



Series: Selected Affections [3]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: (and myself too if im being honest), Angst, F/M, Fluff, ah well, do they even fit together?, fixit (sort of), im giving them closure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:34:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24962350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_wonderingmind/pseuds/a_wonderingmind
Summary: Daniel comes back to see Peggy one last time. He just wants to give her a chance to say goodbye.Written in between 7x03 and 7x05. Spoilers for 7x04.
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Daniel Sousa
Series: Selected Affections [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801873
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> uhhh so I'm sorry?
> 
> I had to get this out of my system, I just couldn't let all of my thoughts lie. It was originally meant to tack onto the end of my 7x04 companion fic but before I knew it was 1.5k and rising, so I let it take its own path. There will be 3 chapters and an epilogue, one every other day (if real life doesn't interrupt!)
> 
> Enjoy?

Daniel stood at their doorstep. Her doorstep. 

He felt like a stranger at his own front door. He was, in a way; a man out of time.

Miss Simmons and Enoch, and the other man, Mr Fitz, had sorted it all out for him. Whatever science wizardry they had used in their time travel they had managed to reverse engineer it somehow to drop him off here, for a bit. He didn’t have the foggiest how it worked.

It was stolen time; after seeing how Peg had struggled to overcome the first abrupt end to a relationship, and heard some of it later, from her lips, he couldn’t not give her this if he had the chance. He had to let her have closure.

Peggy had bought this little house in ‘54, _since she came over to DC enough,_ she’d joked. Much rather this than getting familiar with the terrible food served at Park Sheraton.

_I thought you’d be used to terrible food by now,_ he’d said, _you are British, after all._

She’d poked him in the ribs, playfully, at that. He kept the memory close to his chest. 

Lifting his fist slowly, he took a deep breath and knocked.

The door opened. “Daniel? How did you get here?”

“Hi Peg,”

Her voice softened. “Hi,”

“May I come in?

“Certainly, but I expect a proper greeting.”

He smiled and stepped in, closing the door behind him. 

She pulled herself onto him, leaning him up against the door and bringing her lips up to his.

He looked tired, older somehow.

His hands ghosted up her sides, memorising every curve, hips, waist, before landing on her cheeks and cradling her face, pulling her towards him with as much fierceness as he dared, as if this was all a dream that could shatter at any moment. He’d certainly dreamt it often enough. He wanted it branded in his memories, the feel of her pressed against him, how she moved against him as their tongues battled, how real she was, and whole, and _here._

She made a noise into his mouth and something in him broke. He had to tell her upfront.

He drew away reluctantly, allowing himself to pepper small kisses over her face.

“I’ve got to tell you something,”

“How you got here for one,” she smiled.

“Well,” he looked at her apologetically, “It’s a bit of a long one,”

“You’ll have to tell me on the sofa, then,” she smiled. “I’ve just boiled the kettle, let me make us tea and we can discuss it,”

He looked at her. “Something stronger, perhaps,”

“Oh.” she looked confused. “I’ve got something for you, too. It’s on the coffee table; I picked it up today, I was planning to give it to you when I came back to LA but as you're here now…” 

She shrugged. “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll join you in a moment with some Scotch,”

He nodded. He didn’t particularly want to drink tonight, he thought, but some Dutch courage couldn’t hurt, either.

He plopped down on the old couch, feeling his normal spot mould to him, and hooked his cane over the arm.

On the coffee table was a ring box. 

Shit. 

Trying to suppress the panic, he reached out for the box and opened it gingerly.

Damn. Any last desperate hope that it would just be nice cufflinks bought on a whim disappeared with the glint of the circle of yellow gold staring at him. She had even got it engraved like the old one. 

Wait no, there was the scratch from their honeymoon.

It was then at a second glance around the room that he noticed another box on the side table. It was closed.

“I got them back,” she said from behind him, “they were in the costume store at the DC office. You remember getting dressed for the last op? Some eager costume tech thought they were part of the store and put them away with the rest of the jewellery… Daniel?”

She came and sat next to him on the couch.

“I do remember,” he smiled weakly, “I remember it was a very nice dress,”

She flushed a little, remembering herself the night that had followed, remembering she had not worn that dress for much longer after they had got home. 

She could see in his eyes there was something weighing on him. Grabbing his hand and stroking his thumb, she started, “How did you get here so fast?”


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m still in LA, technically.” he sighed, and steeled himself. “I die tonight.”

He looked up at the clock. 8pm. “In about an hour, give or take.” 

“Daniel, what? Are you sure you’re okay?” she gripped tighter to his hand.

“You know that drop I’m doing for Stark?” A nod. “They’ll ambush me. Shoot me in the back. I’ll be found in a pool a couple of hours later. You’ll never find my body.”

“How do you know this?”

“You’re not going to believe me, but I get picked up by a SHIELD from the future and they send a robot in my place. The rate at which technology develops in the coming years is astronomical. I’ve been travelling with them, but I needed to come back and see you one last time. Give you some closure, too.”

“That’s absurd.”

“Then where did I get this from, Peg?”

He lifted his shirt to reveal a perfectly healed bullet scar, almost identical to the ones he knew were on her shoulder.

“That wasn’t there last month.”

“No. Anything else you notice?”

She looked blankly at his face for a moment, then back at his bared stomach.

“Your belt, for your leg. It’s not there.”

He nodded solemnly.

“Look.” He lifted his pant leg to reveal what looked like real skin, but was another wonderful invention of Mr Fitz’s, if Miss Rodriguez was anything to go by.

“It’s so real,” she breathed. “Oh, Daniel,”

“And if you needed any last proof,” he sighed, placing an arm on each of her shoulders and bringing his forehead to hers, “there are no planes flying from LAX; the last one left two days ago and the next one takes off in the morning. Ask the office.”

“I just might,” she said, looking into his eyes, searching for anything that said this was all an elaborate prank. Some trick of Howard’s. She knew, deep down, it wasn’t.

He could hear the muffled tones of a tight phone conversation as he fiddled with his wedding ring, and then the click of the receiver being put down.

She walked back into the room, pale as a sheet, one tear rolling down her cheek.

Knocking back the drink in one, she whispered, “there’s no flights.”

It was like those three words drained all the strength out of her. She placed the tumbler down on the table and floated over to him, all the time looking at his face, his eyes, him.

She took his hand and locked her fingers in his, treasuring the way her slight hand fit into his broad one. Curled into him, resting her head in the crook between his arm and chest, where she always laid her head to sleep. 

Tears pricking her eyes, she spoke in softened tones. “It’s not fair.”

Daniel laid his head on hers, wrapping his arm around her stomach. “I know. I’m sorry,”

"The world is changing, Peg. None of us can go back. All we can do is our best. And sometimes the best we can do is to start over,"

"Daniel, please," she said, so small she thought she might shatter.

"Don't cling to my memory, darling," he said, barely keeping his own voice from wavering. "I want you to live a life,"

She clung to him. "Live it for me. Live it because I wasn't given a chance."

“Stay, Daniel.” she held on like a lifeline. “Please,”

“You know I can’t Peg. It has to be this way. I died,” One tear betrayed him. She sniffled and burrowed deeper into his sweater vest.

“It’s this or I actually die, Peg, I thought you’d appreciate my continued existence,” he jested.

“I do,” she smiled wetly. “I just wish we could share in it.”

“That’s why I’m here Peg,”

“All of it,” she said quietly.

“I know.” He let the rest of the tears betray him, too.

Entwined in each other, they cried together, for the time they had thought they would have, for the other, for themselves, for the hand that fate had dealt them. Grieving for a life they would never know. For affections stolen from them.

When Daniel felt he could cry no more, he pushed the hair out of Peggy’s face, who had now also quieted to the occasional sniffle.

“I’ll look after SHIELD for you, you know, in the future.”

She looked up at him. “What?”

“The future SHIELD I know, they're small. They need rebuilding. Since I’m, y’know, _dead,_ I’m sorta perfect for a secret organisation that doesn’t exist. I thought why not do it again, better this time?”

"Better?" 

Whoops, he'd said too much. The one condition of his coming back was that he didn't reveal anything.

"Shield has some, uh, structural weaknesses that I feel partially responsible for, which end up reducing them to the small size."

"Can't you tell me what they are?"

God, he hated this. He shook his head. "The one condition of my coming was that I wouldn't reveal anything timeline altering,"

"And revealing what I could do to make SHIELD better would be timeline altering?"

He nodded, slowly, apologetically.

"Well I guess I'll just have to trust you to pick it up where I will fall short," she remarked.

"I guess you will,"

"A temporal relay of sorts,"

"A temporal relay."

“And a joint endeavour.”

“Our joint endeavour, across time and space.”

They sealed it with a kiss, slow and close.

Suddenly, Peggy pulled away. “I have an idea.”

She disappeared into the bedroom, and he could hear her rummaging around in the drawers. She came out with hands behind her back.

“Since our marriage is taking a different turn to what we had hoped, I thought we might renew our promises to each other.”

He looked at her slightly confused, as she produced two chains from behind her. Placing them on the coffee table, she picks up the other box on the side table and brings it over. It twinkled at him, the two diamonds either side of the glossy opal that at the time of the purchase he had found to mirror her many shades; the metaphor had only strengthened with time. She undid the chain and slipped it over the links, before taking his ring from the table and threading it onto the other.

“With this ring, I, Margaret Elizabeth Carter, do solemnly promise to hold and to treasure our time and our love, to cherish your memory, and to lead SHIELD in your honour until such a time as you can take the baton from me.” 

She reached forward and did the chain up, forearms resting on him. He leant his head down, capturing it between his cheek and shoulder. He looked at her, trying to pour all of the love he didn’t have words for into his gaze.

“And I, Daniel Antonio Sousa,” he said, picking up the second chain from the table, “do solemnly promise to hold and to treasure our life together, to cherish your memory and your legacy, and, when it comes, to take the baton from you and to lead SHIELD to make you proud.”

“You already have, darling,” she breathed.

He brought his hands up the nape of her neck, fastening the chain and running his fingers through the feathery tendrils she had always struggled to contain, into the day’s curls, capturing her lips in a firm kiss. She responded, willing him to understand everything she wanted to say.

And then his stomach rumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If it makes you feel any better, I physically could not sit and write this for long chunks of time because it HURT
> 
> +10 points to anyone who spots the text I lifted from another point in Peggy’s life... 
> 
> He’s Daniel Antonio Sousa. I said what I said. None of this Jordan bizness.


	3. Chapter 3

She looked up at him, for a moment surprised, then burst out laughing. He couldn’t help but join in. It was light and unencumbered, shedding all the charge of the last moments. 

“How long has it been since you ate?” she asked.

“Technically, several decades,” he grinned.

She punched his arm playfully.

“I left the future just before lunch. What?”

She was looking at him as if he had said something crazy. He supposed he had.

“It’s the truth!” he exclaimed.

Peg nodded. “I know. It’s just a ridiculous string of words to come out of your mouth.” 

“It’s not something I’d ever thought I’d say either.”

A beat, and then his stomach made itself known again.

“Luckily for you, I marinaded some pork for bifana today. I was going to make it last two days, but I guess I can sacrifice some for your sake,”

“You were actually going to try something resembling cooking, Peg? Am I in the right timeline?” 

She blushed slightly. “I missed you. It won’t be as good as the ones your Pai makes, but it helps me to feel connected to you.”

Daniel wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, so instead he kissed her forehead.

“Do you want to get started then?” he said, pushing himself off the couch and heading towards the kitchen. 

It took him a moment to realise she was staring up at him from the couch. “Peg?”

“You can walk on the new leg? Why have you still got the cane?”

He looked sheepish. “I didn’t want to give anything away until I could tell you. You would have noticed the absence.”

She tipped her head in acquiescence.

He could feel her eyes on him as they walked to the kitchen, not malicious, but curious. It occurred to him that she had never known him without some kind of walking aid. He knew that of course, but this was the first time he had properly acknowledged the fact.

“You’re burning holes in my back,” he joked.

He turned to find her swiping at her eyes. She breathed out.

“I remember how much you used to want to be unencumbered like this. I’m very happy for you, darling,” 

He reflected her smile back at her. “The benefits of the future,” he shrugged. “Doesn’t quite outweigh the downsides though.”

He wiped away another tear that had escaped her eyes, and drew her into his chest.

“Pork is on the side,” she whispered, squeezing him tightly.

“I can see,” he replied, placing a kiss on her forehead and tucking his chin over her head. One hand wrapped around her shoulders, as the other one reached into the drawer for a pair of tongs and deposited them on the side in favour of bringing his other hand back to the woman in his arms and wrapping it around her waist. 

They stayed like that until Peggy reluctantly pulled back. “I suppose we should get something into you. We can’t have you starve before you die,” she chuckled.

He felt a swell of something, pride, and love, mixed with sympathy perhaps, as he let his hand come to rest on her hip. “I suppose,” he smiled back.

She picked up the tongs and turned to put the hob on. A pan was already on one of the rings. She made the subtle switch to business Peggy as she asked him to please get some cheese and salad out of the fridge, and toast that bread on the side, as she grabbed the marinating meat and started to transfer them from the ceramic dish to the pan.

He didn’t resist the urge to come up behind her and kiss her neck, and she responded by leaning back into him. He grinned against her skin and reached to her side to get a knife out of a drawer to her side, and bumped her hip as he set himself up with a chopping board next to her.

They moved around each other like a well practised dance, Daniel thought. That gave him an idea, but the now gnawing hunger in his stomach said he’d have to implement it later. The cooking smelled fresh and peppery.

“Smells wonderful.”

“Good to know for the future,” she said, “my future, anyway,” she mused.

“Sousa approved,” he said gently. 

Soon they were constructing their sandwiches, cheese melting between the lightly toasted rolls and pork slices still hot from the pan, topped with crisp leaves. Daniel bit in. 

It tasted of nostalgia.

They munched together, not breaking contact; a foot under the table, leaning on the other’s shoulder. They talked about everything and nothing, Peggy’s day, the Jarvis' new dog, as if they didn’t have the weight of the future hanging over them. “What’s next for you?” she asked casually, “What adventures are you going to have when I’m gone?”

“I have no idea, honestly,” he murmured. “I may know your future, but mine is still a mystery.” He paused, and his earlier idea came back to him. “I do know one adventure I want to have, though. Follow me.”

He smiled and stood, holding his hand out to her. She came, willingly, but looked slightly unsure. He stepped into the lounge and headed for the record player. Her eyes softened as she caught on. He returned to her, and pressed her body close to his as the music started up.

“Step on my feet.”

“What?”

“Do it.”

Peggy obeyed, giggling almost childishly as she found her balance against him.

Daniel lifted his foot and stepped forward, then brought his other foot out to the side, before bringing them together in a rough estimate of the box step his Mãe had taught him. He felt, rather than heard her sigh against him, and she relaxed into his gentle swaying. 

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” he whispered. 

She vibrated a contented reply into his chest.

They stood in the middle of the living room for a while, breathing in each other, savouring every second, before Peggy stepped off his feet and grinned, glancing at the record player, which had just come to a stop. “Did you ever learn the Lindy Hop?” 

He shook his head. “Not properly. I danced it a couple of times, but I sorely lack the practice,”

“Come on, I’ll teach you; or, reteach you, I suppose,” she laughed. 

He smiled back at her, trying to commit the joyous sound to memory.

“Start with your feet under your shoulders…”

It only took a few minutes before the back-hop-hop rhythm began to come to him and before long he was improvising and spinning along with her, hopping around the room and laughing like he hadn't in a long time. He could hear the music coming to a crescendo, and he spun her back into him, catching her, an arm across the small of her back. 

She reached up and captured his lips in a kiss, and he responded in kind, pouring all the gratitude, and love, and care he could into it. He was slightly breathless, and she was too, so he drew back, nipping at her lower lip and pressing short kisses everywhere, the corner of her mouth, the rise of her cheek, her philtrum.

She lunges for him again, but the weight of the pair shifts in just the wrong way, and they come tumbling down onto the sofa behind them. Peggy lands beside him, laughing breathlessly. She snakes a hand behind his neck and shifts, so she is kneeling beside him, drinking him in with slow gasps on his lips.

She stops, as if a thought has just come into her head, and regards him. 

“If your eros should decide to make itself known again,” she said earnestly, “you have my express permission to pursue it.”

“Peg - ”

“My orders, even. You have such a loving heart, Daniel, don’t close it off on my account,”

“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled weakly. “I don’t think that’ll happen for a while, though,”

“Give it a chance. I couldn’t bear thinking of you as a lonely grump,” she chuckled. 

“The same goes for you, Peg. I want you to be happy.”

She smiled at him sadly. “You make me happy, Daniel. And I’m sure I will be happy again, in time. But allow me a little time to grieve you, too.”

“That goes without saying, Peg. I wouldn't want you to get over me too quickly,” he joked, and she stifled a laugh.

“I wouldn’t worry too much on that front, dear,” she whispered, close enough to capture his lips again.

This time it was a raw, desperate kiss. He could feel her drawing herself towards him, yearning to close the space, needing every inch of contact she could get.

He curled his hands around her waist, hands wandering to the small of her back, pulling her to him with the same amount of force she was arching towards him. She grabbed at his face, letting her shoulders lead as she moved to straddle him, her whole chest up against his. God, she drove him insane.

Hands tugging at his shirt, he recognised the bare need in her reaction. He couldn't deny her anything tonight. 

At first overcome by desperation, tight grasps at familiar places, pulling at his hair, palming her breasts, nibbling on his ears. The waves of wild anguish rolled over them, a crescendo of want and the awareness that their time was short. She steadied herself, realising what a precious gift this was and determined to enjoy every moment of it. 

And they made love, tender, slow, bittersweet. All shivers and roaming hands and whispered I love yous. 

Later, sated, Peggy looked up from her finger drawing slow circles on his bare chest.

“How long are you here, Daniel?”

“We’ve got until morning, Peg,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daniel’s ‘eros’ is a reference to another fic I wrote exploring my hc that Daniel is demisexual, in language they plausibly would have had access to in the 40s.   
> You can find it [here.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20617016)


	4. Epilouge

Peggy shut the door to their house. Her house.

It was too quiet. Buzzing with the sound of her loss.

The phone rang, piercing the silence.

Dreading that this might be it, she picks up the receiver.

"Director Carter speaking."

"It's Chief Sousa, ma'am,"

The house was too damn quiet.


End file.
